I^r 



384 



AUDUBON 



torda^ which they call " Tinkers. "^ The Moruion, they 

 call "Sea Parrots." Each species seems to have its own 

 island except the Alca torda, which admits the Guillemots. 

 As we advanced, we passed by a rock literally covered 

 with Cormorants, of what species I know not yet; their 

 effluvia could be perceived more than a mile off. We 

 made the fine anchorage where we now are about four 

 o'clock. We found some difficulty in entering on account 

 of our pilot being an ignorant ass; twice did we see the 

 rocks under our vessel. The appearance of the country 

 around is quite different from that near American Har- 

 bor; nothing in view here as far as eye can reach, but 

 bare, high, rugged rocks, grand indeed, but not a shrub 

 a foot above the ground. The moss is shorter and more 

 compact, the flowers are fewer, and every plant more 

 diminutive. No matter which way you glance, the pros- 

 pect is cold and forbidding; deep banks of snow appear 

 here and there, and yet I have found the Shore Lark 

 {Alauda alpestris ^) in beautiful summer plumage. I found 

 the nest of the Brown Lark {Ant/ius spinoletta ^) with five 

 eggs in it; the nest was planted at the foot of a rock, 

 buried in dark mould, and beautifully made of fine grass, 

 well and neatly worked in circularly, without any hair or 

 other lining. We shot a White-crowned Sparrow, two 

 Savannah Finches, and saw more, and a Red-bellied 

 Nuthatch ; this last bird must have been blown here acci- 

 dentally, as not a bush is there for it to alight upon. I 

 found the tail of an unknown Owl, and a dead Snow-bird 

 which from its appearance must have died from cold and 

 famine. John brought a young Cormorant alive from the 

 nest, but I cannot ascertain its species without the adult, 

 which we hope to secure to-morrow. At dusk the " Gui- 



1 This is the usual sailors' name of the Razor-billed Auk ^^brsdorMd 

 Newfoundland, and was the only one heard by me in Labrador in i860 

 (see Proc. Acad Nat. Sci., 1861, p. 249). — E. C. 



* Now Otocorys alpestris. — E. C. 



* Now Anthus pennsylvanicus. — E. C. 



